Hello, my name is Jhames

I’ve made vegan chocolate-chip cookies with little satisfaction in the final product. The cookies may have baked in an oven but they tasted a lot like raw cookie dough. If I was looking to nurse mental anguish with food, at least I have a safe alternative to possible e-coli exposure. This recipe for vegan oatmeal cookies, however, is nothing like its chocolate-chip cousin (twice removed, possibly thrice). Every time I have made these cookies, the final product is never the same. The cookies either come out brittle, thin, or with just the right amount of crispy-chewy goodness. Since I never know what to expect, I never feel disappointed. These vegan oatmeal cookies are the sweet epitome of buddhist doctrine: let go of expectations (the cookies will come out tasting good).

Ingredients

• 2 cups rolled oats
• 1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour
• 1/2 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• 2/3 cup canola oil
• 1/3 cup maple syrup
• 1/3 cup evaporated cane sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2/3 cup raisins

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350°F
2. Lightly grease cookie sheet
3. Grind 1 cup of the oats in a blender until it’s a coarse meal. Transfer to a large bowl.
4. Add whole-wheat pastry flour, unbleached flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg to ground oats. Stir with a whisk and set aside.
5. Whisk oil, maple syrup, cane sugar, and vanilla in a medium bowl until thick and thoroughly blended. Fold into dry ingredients with a rubber spatula.
6. Stir in remaining whole oats and raisins.
7. Drop dough by 1/4 cups about 2″ apart on cookie sheet. Press dough into 1/2″ thick rounds.
8. Bake until edges are brown, about 20-25 minutes.
9. Remove from oven and transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Tips

• You can use 1 cup plain ol’ bleached flour instead of 1/2 wheat and 1/2 white, this will result in a cookie with less density.
• You can use agave nectar or brown rice syrup in place of maple syrup.

This recipe may or may not make 10-12 cookies. Just let yourself be in the moment and allow the cookies to simply be. Om.